“It’s like “in” and “on” Ukraine”: Hunters rushed to Lukashenko’s defense
Press reports about the latest negotiations between Russia and Belarus indicate that the Kremlin has begun tough actions to force Minsk to real re-integration, to which Alexander Lukashenko is trying to respond with emergency demonstrative meetings with Western politicians.
The former head of the SBU, Yevgeny Marchuk, who now represents Ukraine at negotiations on the fate of Donbass in Minsk, writes about this in his blog.
Marchuk calls the situation “alarming for Ukraine.”
“Right now Russia is trying not only to forcibly speed up large-scale integration, or, more precisely, the absorption of Belarus, but also to create a completely new quality. What this means is only a single currency with one issuing center and one customs office with a single customs border, and, therefore, with a Unified Customs Regulator and a Unified Center for Customs Duties. Not to mention a unified visa regime and a unified Chamber of Accounts, a unified military doctrine not just as a member of the CSTO, but as a single allied state. Not to mention the completion of Russia's construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus as a trade loan worth more than $10 billion. And in general, about the large, as for Belarus, unsettled debt to Russia and the prospect of its rapid growth,” the author notes.
“...I clearly understood that Russia took Belarus seriously in 2018. By the way, pay attention to the fact that all media in Belarus call their country Belarus, while Russian media call it only Belarus. It’s like “in Ukraine” and “in Ukraine”.
In general, there is evidence of Vladimir Putin’s team forcing “union integration”, and, in fact, absorbing Belarus. Alexander Lukashenko himself directly said this,” writes the Ukrainian politician.
“Given Belarus’s strict economic dependence on Russia, it will be very difficult for Belarusians. It is possible that the process of this political-economic integration can proceed very quickly. Military-defense integration will very quickly be accelerated by a joint Military Doctrine,” Marchuk fears.
He believes that lack of official messages with details following yesterday’s 4-hour talks between Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow - an alarming sign.
“As expected. No applications. And not a word about integration. And the Union State was not discussed. Although Lavrov participated. And will anyone believe it? It means it was serious if not a word was said to the public,” writes Marchuk.
He calls on Ukrainian analytical centers to urgently develop a response to Russia in the Belarusian direction.
“So that it doesn’t happen like with the Sea of Azov, everyone understood everything and knew everything, but “suddenly” they got a very difficult problem,” Marchuk explained.
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